Letter: A Lot Has Happened at Guildford Museum This Year

Published on: 20 May, 2023
Updated on: 20 May, 2023

From Peta Malthouse

Friends of Guildford Museum

The Friends of Guildford Museum is an organisation which raises funds for and supports the work of the museum. It gives opportunities to its members to volunteer for heritage tasks and attend the many talks and walks it arranges.

The Guildhall in Guildford High Street is open to the public every Tuesday between 10 and 12 noon until August 22. It is staffed by volunteers from the Friends as well as the museum’s heritage staff.

It also works closely with the museum staff and the borough councillors in delivering their services.

At its AGM at the Guildhall (May 12), we had a report from the heritage lead at the museum, Amanda Hargreaves and this was followed by a talk about the Postal Services in Guildford delivered by Michael Miller, a well-known local historian.

The postal services were originally started by Henry VIII who wished to communicate with the Navy at Portsmouth. They had to stop at Guildford and our posting houses grew up in their wake.

This year the museum held three temporary exhibitions, curated by the museum team and more are planned.

Looking out onto the balcony at the Guildhall in Guildford High Street.

The Friends were able to pay for display panels for the ‘Videogames Made in Guildford’ exhibition which Mrs Hargreaves said made a great difference.

The project to document all 100,000 or so of our museum objects is continuing. This has been enabled by the Friends’ purchase of a new collections management system in 2021. The collections team have catalogued 22,624 objects so far, assisting the museum staff to more effectively search for exhibits for future displays.

The museum have two exhibitions opening in the summer linked to the town and river. Weyside Stories – the River Wey in Guildford will be accompanied by Town Tales, Guildford’s Iconic Buildings at Guildford House. They are also working with the Town Guides to link their Messing about on the Wey walks with these exhibitions.

An exciting exhibition in partnership with the Secret World War II Learning Network will take place in September.

A lot has happened this year and in particular The Guildhall has been opened to the public every Tuesday between 10 and 12 noon until August 22. This is staffed by volunteers from the Friends as well as heritage staff.

If you would like to know more, become involved with the Friends, and/or get the opportunity to work more closely with our Heritage Services then please let us know. You can email us on info@friendsofguildfordmuseum.org.uk or look on our Facebook group, Friends of Guildford Museum.